NHT a financial institution, not housing agency — PM
MASEMURE, Westmoreland — Prime Minister Andrew Holness has asserted that the National Housing Trust (NHT) is not a housing agency but a financial institution.
“So people see the NHT as a housing agency. The NHT is not a housing agency, the NHT is a financial institution and we have to treat the NHT like a financial institution,” Holness said during his address at a ground-breaking ceremony for the Darliston and Masemure housing developments in Westmoreland last Friday.
Thirty-two housing solutions are to be created in Darliston, while 106 are to be developed in Masemure.
The prime minister’s statement came a day after the Government indicated that it will be dipping into the NHT’s coffers, despite its strong opposition when the previous People’s National Party (PNP) Administration did the same.
During the opening of the budget debate last Thursday, Minister of Finance Audley Shaw announced that the Government will be taking $11.4 billion from the NHT to fund the coming fiscal year budget.
Holness said last Friday that steps will be taken to improve the structure of the NHT.
“And we are going to take the steps necessary to improve the management and governance structures of the NHT, so that the NHT is run more like how a financial institution should be run and to make decisions based upon financial soundness; but also bearing in mind the provision of affordable housing solutions for Jamaicans,” he said.
The prime minister said the Government will ensure that the National Housing Trust is placed on “solid footing” so that it can have a “long institutional life”.
“So that your children, my children, will be able to own their own homes through the NHT,” he said.
Holness insisted that the Government is serious about building houses.
“… So we are not playing around with the NHT now. We are serious about using the NHT resources to build housing solutions for the people of Jamaica,” he said.
Holness also reiterated that by the end of this financial year, the construction of 3,075 houses would have started across the island. He added that within two years, the NHT is expected to start at least 14,000 housing solutions.
“In the 2017/2018 financial year, we would have started 8,000 housing solutions for Jamaicans and we don’t want to stop there either. In the following financial year, that is, two years from now, we hope to have at least 14,000 housing starts for Jamaicans,” Holness said.
Meanwhile, the prime minister insisted that there will be no political interference with the NHT as it goes about fulfilling one of its mandates of adding to and improving the country’s existing supply of housing.
“The country has to mature past whichever administration is in power and look for whatever is good for the country. Because this is good, and therefore what I have said to the NHT, I am not going to try to use it in any political way. Build house wherever you can build them in Jamaica, (so) that Jamaican people can get houses,” Holness said.
The prime minister’s comment was in relation to the two housing projects in Westmoreland, which was conceptualised by the previous PNP Administration and is now being implemented by the Jamaica Labour Party Administration.
“We have some of the most creative people in the world. Jamaica’s problem is not trying to figure out how to solve a problem…. Jamaica’s problem is implementation; getting things done. That’s where we have some of the biggest deficit,” Holness reasoned.
The prime minister said that the NHT was conceived by former Prime Minister Michael Manley of the PNP out of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), which was created by the JLP.
He said that while Manley was seen as the great conceptualiser, he wants to be known as the “great implementer”.
“Because ideas are great. I am a thinker myself. I value ideas. But until you can convert ideas into products, into value that people can feel and experience, then it is all in the head. We have to transfer that now to the hands, to do the work, to get the things done,” Holness said.
He said he is currently going through all that was left behind in the respective ministries by the previous Administration with the aim of getting things done.
“I am saying this with the greatest sincerity to parliamentary colleagues… I am looking through all the ministries and all the projects that are there and I am not going to say, ‘Don’t do this one because it falls in a PNP area or don’t do this one because we need that seat. No.’ Whatever is good to be done for the Jamaican people, we are going to get it done,” Holness assured.